I grew up in a very Catholic environment abroad, surrounded by a loving extended family filled with faith, long marriages, loyal spouses, and several children. We were blessed to grow up in a culture that promoted the idea that our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit that should not be abused by alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, or premarital sex. No one was perfect. Still, the environment promoted and supported what was good.
At a Jesuit university abroad, I was introduced to Liberation Theology and Feminist Theology. Later, at American universities, I encountered the Critical Theories – race, gender, historical, legal. Some aspects of these thoughts were intriguing, particularly for the challenges and questions they posed. But for the most part, they were ridiculous – simplistic and angry in their analyses, limited in their prescriptions. I wondered why the feminists thought we had to act like the basest of men to be liberated. If men were so “bad” what good would it do for society or women themselves to act in the same way? Shouldn’t we instead move men to act in the better ways that women did? And while upset at the poverty and suffering around me and angry at corrupt officials and individuals, I instinctively recoiled at the idea of “social sin.” How could ascribing a whole set of presumptions and faults on a group of people leave room for individual responsibility? How could that be just?
Like many others of that time, I thought these were just musings of academics who needed to break new ground for their dissertations, who would follow these musings to their illogical conclusions and then abandon them in the dump of dumb ideas.
Intellectual pride was my downfall. I failed to see the warning signs in the culture. Pregnant during graduate school, and asked about my plans, I said, “Oh, front load courses in the first semester, so I’ll just have 3 classes in the winter when I’m due. It’ll be perfectly fine.” Female classmates looked at me quizzically. Finally, one “helpfully” translated, ”Oh, she’s going to keep IT.” Insulted by the reference to “it,” wrapped up in my own selfish preoccupations, I failed to share the facts and wonders of prenatal development to my classmates as the months went on. Years later, a kind and experienced OB-GYN saved me from seeing his younger partner, who angrily tried to force all kinds of tests, saying I was too old to have a child at 37 (!) especially while battling a thyroid condition. Even then, the thought that anyone in Obstetrics might advocate for an abortion rather than ensure all possible support for a healthy pregnancy and delivery never crossed my mind.
Just as my professors allowed debate and discussion to show the limitations of ideas, I believed educators would continue to do the same. As a parent, I heard the local Catholic high school say all the right things. The administrators pointed to the school’s patron saint, promised to teach the faith, showed us their syllabi and the books with their imprimaturs, offered parent retreats, and highlighted the many service projects on behalf of the needy. Yet, when parents worried about the shaky faith of their children, we were told, “It’s just a phase.” “Be patient, they will come back.” “…especially when they have their own children.” There was little urgency for the spiritual welfare of the students and little patience with concerned parents. The school later went on to promote Gender Ideology to its students, requiring their attendance to a whole day devoted to this “social justice” issue, and introducing it to the middle school under the guise of “diversity.”
Many kids I encountered abandoned their faith in high school and college, leaving their parents and grandparents shocked and heartbroken. They led lives not much different from their secular counterparts, dabbling in alcohol, drugs, and a dating culture that expected physical intimacy before love and commitment. Anxiety, anger, and depression followed. Unsettled and unhappy, the young people I’ve encountered are searching, yet unwilling to turn back to faith because teachers had made them suspicious of faith as a series of old, unreasonable, unscientific, judgmental, limiting, negative rules.
This is unconscionable. Too many young people are in pain. We betray them when we allow teachers to push lies and half-truths. We betray our responsibilities as parents and adults when we accept their loss of faith as natural. We betray God when we allow this stunted version of the truth to persist.
This generation does not have the blessing of a pervasive culture that promotes and supports the good. The culture – through media, social media, celebrities, and activists – has promoted a message of “love,” positivity, self-determination, no regrets and absolute freedom, promising people so much, but providing them with so little.
What this generation has (which mine did not growing up) is the gift of Pope St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. When I finally heard about TOB, 26 years after St. John Paul II first spoke, I was stunned. It just made sense. Here was a deeper explanation of the Incarnation, of why our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and of what human dignity means. This is why any school that purports to educate the “whole child” (and they all do) must address their students’ minds, spirits and bodies, not by separately addressing these 3 aspects, but by teaching them to lead integrated lives from the very beginning.
Schools contributed to this problem of lost, hurting young people, so they have to be part of the solution. The pervading culture is blinded, so it needs to be enlightened. Young people were targeted and devastated, so they can also be the most effective advocates.
The Culture Project delivers on all these fronts. These amazing young men and women share the truth about human nature and dignity, the beauty of human integrity and the freedom of virtue. They tell kids that they are loved, that their deepest hopes and desires are valid, that there are real answers to their real questions and that they are destined for a greatness beyond social media likes and influence. These amazing missionaries – not much older than their audiences – are far more effective messengers to other young people, than parents are, at this stage.
Lived truth, spiritual strength, authentic friendships, and solid training make the men and women of the Culture Project our front-line in the mission to save our children from the meaninglessness and depression the current culture serves them. We all know someone who is hurting. We all wish we could do something. We all wish we could help. This is it. Please join us in prayerful, generous support of the Culture Project because our young people deserve Truth.